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Saturday, April 8, 2017

A Week in Lipstick #1: Keep or Declutter

Wait, how could I possibly have more lip products to declutter? Surely I can't have all that much left after taking stock and envisioning what my ideal lipstick collection would be, as discussed in this post. Except that I do; I still seem to have some lip products in my stash that I've never worn - those mostly join the troops via gifts with purchase - or older products I haven't worn in months and need to reassess.

I find that it's a completely different beast to look through your lip stash and decide what you want to part ways with just by what you remember about the products you're looking at, versus actually pulling out those items and wearing them again for a day or two. If you're anything like me, when I look at my lip products all neatly lined up in the acrylic container, I immediately think 'Nooo, there's no way I can declutter any of my pretties!'. However, once these pretty bullets get applied and reapplied to the lips, I often notice that in fact there is a valid reason why I rarely reach for a given product - be it because of the shade, finish, fragrance/ taste or texture.

So I've decided to go through my lipstick collection with a fine tooth comb again by wearing everything for a full day and then deciding whether it stays or goes - very much like PetitePearStyle in her Keep or Donate series (here). I slowly go through all of my make-up stash anyway by using a monthly make-up basket, but because I switch out my products quite infrequently, it would take me a long time before I got to every lip product I own - and then I'd probably omit these 'special occasion' shades since my basket (in reality, a drawer in a desk organizer - I'll show it to you some other time) consists of casual everyday wear type of products. Anyway, without further ado, here are swatches of what I wore recently and my final thoughts:

A post shared by Monika (@rocaillewrites) on Mar 30, 2017 at 10:55am PDT

Essence Stay With Me Long Wearing Lip Gloss in Candy Bar (also swatched here): DECLUTTER.
This is the product that spurred this declutter on, which I also shared on Instagram - and had many of you express interest in seeing the rest of the purging process. Like I said in my IG post, I used to really enjoy wearing this very bright coral shade, but now I find that it's just way too much and I feel overly made-up when I wear it. It's also 3 years old at this point, so I've just decided to toss it.

Fresh Sugar Shine Lip Treatment in Rose (deluxe sample; I reviewed the Clear shade here): KEEP.
I still really like this gloss formula from Fresh - it feels almost more like a lip oil than an actual gloss, and like the Sugar lip balms, it's very nourishing. Rose is a sheer warm rosy red on me; it's nothing spectacular but it brings some life and definition to my lips. One thing I dislike about these Lip Shine minis is that the stopper pulls too much of the product of the wand, making me dip in at least 5 times to coat my lips, and who has time for that? And once you take the stopper out, the tube usually becomes too messy to carry the product around. Still, I'm keeping it and intend to try and use it up this year; I've just noticed that Sephora now only carries one shade of this product, so it's probably being discontinued :(

LORAC Alter Ego Lip Gloss in Goddess (deluxe sample from a GWP): DECLUTTER.
Goddess is this super trendy muted cool mauve shade with an almost greyish undertone, and since I really like cool-toned mauves, I was excited to try it. Aaand... big fat NOPE. Unfortunately, this shade makes me look quite ill, and I don't need additional help in that direction with how zombie-like I look nowadays (pale winter skin + lack of sleep). Yes, it could be a statement lip if that's your thing, but for a strange but wonderful purple lip, I'd prefer to wear Pacifica Beach Goth (reviewed here). On the plus side, I found this gloss to have a nice even pigmentation, comfortable texture and pleasant vanilla scent, so I would consider purchasing a different shade. Goddess is going though.

SUQQU Creamy Glow Moist Lipstick in no. 3 Fuyuzakura (reviewed here): KEEP.
I still really enjoy this luxury lipstick, both because of the shade and the onctuous formula that feels nourishing on the lips. I would probably purchase another shade if SUQQU was more easily available to me (and less expensive), but as it is, I'm intending to use Fuyuzakura down to the smallest nub and enjoy it as much as I can in the process.

bareMinerals Pop of Passion Lip Oil-Balm in Pink Passion (deluxe sample from a GWP): DECLUTTER.
In fact, the lip swatch you're seeing here is only half Pink Passion and half Fresh Sugar Tinted Lip Treatment in Tulip (reviewed here). You probably were not able to tell right away though because these hot pinks are near exact dupes. However, the textures of these two products are completely different: where the Fresh Sugar is soft and thick, the bareMinerals is thin and waxy. Pink Passion also somehow migrates towards the outside of my lips right after application (which you can somewhat see in the photo). I have no need or want for two hot pink tinted lip balms in my stash, so I'm giving away the formula I like a lot less.

That's it for this round; I've decided to only include five products in this post because truthfully, I usually don't wear make-up every single day of the week, but even if I do, I usually repeat a shade or two at least once. I hope this was interesting to read - I'm getting more and more ruthless in downsizing my make-up collection, you guys. I think once you catch the decluttering bug, it's hard to stop scrutinizing your possessions (unless you did an exceptionally thorough job the first time round and haven't added anything new since). Have you given away or trashed any lip poducts recently?

4 comments:

I love PetitePearStyle's Lipstick A Day series, and I've been pondering doing something like it myself. Lipstick is my biggest weakness when it comes to makeup, so I try to go through and get rid of old stuff pretty often. There's a certain point at which you have too much lipstick to enjoy everything you have, so I think it's important to keep downsizing. I want to be able to give my new ones the love they deserve, which means tossing old things that I no longer love.

You're completely right. As I don't see my stash most of the time, I keep on using only 6-10 products. Some of these more often than the others. I totaly forget about the rest of my lipsticks and lipglosses -.- When I open something new, I may fall in love in it or it may stay for a couple of months without beeing used again. Maybe I should declutter these products, but ... mh sometimes I'm just waiting for the right occasion or mood to wear these products. Therefore its really hard for me to declutter. I own a lot of these "special occasion" products (including reds and deep shades), but I can not get rid of them since these shades seem to be special. But I only have one special occasion per month -.-"

I also tried to wear brighter shades on spring but I don't feel well with it. Therefore I decided to empty or trash those. I keep to autumn shades throughout the year. It's interesting that your decision upon these shades seem to be the same as my would be.

I finally destashed my NARS Audacious lipstick in Angela last week by taking shameless advantage of Nordstrom's generous return policy. To be fair, I did have proof of purchase and I'd really tried to make the lipstick work for me. But I still felt like I was getting away with something by returning a product two years after purchase. :/

I trying to use up my lipstick so in the last year I finished 3 (2 Shiseido PK 701 and 711 and Guerlain Kisskiss Grenadine Shine I need to find a Dupe I LOVE that lipstick and it is now discountinued) I also declutter 3 Dior lip glosses all were smelling funny. I'm more a lipstick person so I will try to use up my lipstick and use more lipgloss. I see myself finishing another 3 lipsticks this year.